I was asked to write a piece where to reflect about what can be done and what cannot be done on the Internet, in the sense of what is allowed, what is not, where are the boundaries of our civic rights, where do different rights collide (e.g. freedom of expression vs. intellectual property rights), etc.

I ended writing what it looks like a slightly different thing: that there is not an actual collision of rights, but the dawn of a totally new model of society. And what looks like a collision of rights is, indeed, the fight to set up new institutions, appoint new leaders and shape up this new model according to each one’s own views. Thus, the apparent collision of rights is but the symptom of a higher level matter: what is the “global order” going to look like in the next decades after the actual order, based on the industrial paradigm, has become obsolete by Information and Communication Technologies.

I want to heartily thank Marc Rius for the invitation to write this piece, for his patience on my repeated delays and, most especially, for not changing a single comma on what I acknowledge is a dense text that goes way beyond the simple answer to what can and cannot be done on the Internet.

4 Comments to “The conquest of Internet: new maps for new territories”
»

Ismael, do you know if there is any planned English translation of this piece or the entire collection? I am very much wishing I spoke adequate Spanish or Catalan, as I have the sense that the conversation that is emerging there is quite a few years ahead of where the conversation is in North America, and I so wish I could participate. Sincerely, Scott

The magazine is in Catalan and its target is Catalan people, so I very much doubt there will be any ‘official’ translation to English (the Spanish translation is mine and I did it to reach out Spanish speakers).

I’ll see whether I can find time for that, but that won’t certainly happen in the next days :(

I am professor at the School of Law and Political Science of the Open University of Catalonia,
and researcher at the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute and the eLearn Center of that university.
I am also the director of the Open Innovation project at Fundació Jaume Bofill.